


Mentor Versus Master

by sigmalied



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 01:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8777173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sigmalied/pseuds/sigmalied
Summary: Aria steps in to teach Liselle some important biotic skills when her usual mentor, Zuria, is unable to get through to her.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Winner of the October 2016 poll: "Aria teaching Liselle a biotic technique that Zuria couldn't". Part of the Confidentiality/GBTQ universe.

Standing in the vacant lot contained within the complex of apartment buildings, Liselle entertained herself by encapsulating an unloaded gun within a cobalt sphere of biotics, lifting the firearm into the air where it hovered and weltered as if balanced on a thin beam of concentration. She maneuvered the palm of her hand beneath it, striding in pursuit whenever it strayed too far.

Nearby, Zuria had finished preparing their practice dummies—those lumpy bipedal analogues with doltish faces drawn on by Liselle some years previously—and returned her attention to her student. “Are you ready now, Liselle?” At the moment she located Liselle, Zuria witnessed her stumbling over a power box connected to the buildings while distracted by the floating gun. “All right, give it here.”

Liselle obeyed her, allowing the gun to descend into the hands of her biotic mentor. “So, what’s the gun for, again?” she asked.

“We’re going to practice disarming,” Zuria replied. She inspected the weapon to ensure it presently contained no ammunition. “Say you find yourself unarmed, or maybe someone’s beat you to the draw. Maybe you’re taking a prisoner. You’ll need to take their weapon away and subdue them as quickly as possible. My preferred method of doing this is through stasis fields. No fuss, no mess. How are you on stasis fields?”

“They’re… all right.”

“Okay, well, let’s give it a try. Now, when I lift the gun, I want you to use your biotics to stop me, and then I want you to take the gun away from me. Remember, I’m going to resist you. Make sure I can’t move when you approach me.”

“Got it,” Liselle said, placing herself a few long strides away from Zuria.

Zuria intentionally did not reveal the time at which she would raise the gun, wanting Liselle to demonstrate her reflexes. When she took aim, Liselle was swift to react. The girl lifted an arm and froze Zuria’s weapon, along with the hand that gripped it, in a membrane of biotic light. She followed up as instructed, dashing toward her mentor to seize the gun, but was abruptly stopped when Zuria made use of her free limb. With it she augmented her own biotics with a simple gesture that stole all purchase from Liselle’s feet and sent her rising into the air. While Liselle flailed helplessly but determinedly, Zuria recovered her hand, reunited the gaze of the firearm with its target, and stated conclusively, “You’re dead,” before gently returning Liselle’s feet to the ground.

“You need to make a larger stasis field,” Zuria advised her. “If you leave me with any ability to take action, I’ll beat you. You need to cover every threat, because if your enemy has any way out, they’ll take it.”

Dejectedly, Liselle replied, “I can’t make a field that big. I can only make small ones.”

“Well,” Zuria sighed, “then we’ll just have to practice those today. It’s too important of a skill to neglect.”

The gun was set aside and the pair turned to the dummies for their training. Zuria demonstrated the technique first and issued a brief lecture in reference to the practice dummy cloaked in shimmering blue. “It’s like the field you use when lifting an object, but you have to stabilize it, harden it. Touch it.” She stepped aside to permit Liselle’s approach.

Liselle curiously lifted a hand, brushed her fingertips against the front of the practice dummy, and discovered the field glazing its inanimate body to be unyielding, even when she pressed her fingernails forward in an attempt to breach it. “It’s… solid?” she inquired.

“Virtually,” said Zuria. “It has to act solid, to restrict the movement of your target. Otherwise, they’d be able to break free, or if you’re taking a hostage—or even protecting someone—you have to make sure they won’t be harmed while defenseless. Try recreating this field. Here.” She released the dummy from her biotics and awaited Liselle’s attempt.

Liselle hesitated as she recalled the nature of her mentor’s field and aspired to it. She inhaled deeply, concentrating, and willed her stasis field into existence. It emerged along the side of dummy’s head, crawling along the varying surfaces until it had washed over the entirely of the object. But when Liselle stepped back to assess her work along with Zuria, she found her field thinly spread and blotchy, with occasional holes through which air and energy alike could seep.

“Hold it,” Zuria instructed her, believing the field to be salvageable with some direction. “Make it thicker, seal those gaps.”

Although Liselle took her advice seriously, her implementation only resulted in the field collapsing in on the dummy as it tightened through her will. The energy squeezed it, causing portions to distort and protrude through the holes and weak regions.

“Too much inward force,” said Zuria.

At her words, Liselle struggled to rectify her mistake. She overcompensated instead, and the stasis field suddenly erupted outward with a loud pop, sending their arms up in surprise to shield their faces. The chaotic tendrils of energy resembled a miniature biotic flare, buzzing through the air feebly before dissipating, posing no danger to either of them.

“It’s okay, we’ll just try again,” Zuria resolved to a disappointed Liselle at her side. “But we need to get this right before we go back to disarming. I value my fingers too much.”

While Liselle gathered her nerve for another try, Zuria excused herself from her immediate company to answer a call. That she remained close enough to overhear gave Liselle enough cause to eavesdrop, hearing her mentor say, “It’s going well. We’re… making progress.”

During a pause, Zuria glanced back at Liselle, who fumbled to pretend that she hadn’t been listening. In the throes of her tiny surge of panic she accidentally crushed the arm of dummy while placing it in stasis. The violent force clipped the limb free of its body, and it dropped uselessly to the ground with a dull slap. Liselle issued Zuria a wide-eyed, guilty expression.

“You’re… not too busy?” Zuria asked her contact. “Well, we’re still out here in the usual spot, if you want to come by.”

Drawing from the context of her conversation and the limited pool of individuals who knew of their training spot, Liselle concluded that Zuria was talking to none other than Aria. Her suspicion was confirmed when Zuria ended her call and announced that Aria would be by soon, to observe their session and evaluate how well Liselle was doing. She expected her daughter to demonstrate a few essential skills as well… including those she was currently botching. Liselle wilted at the news, knowing with certainty that she would not perform well in any category, save for her unusual aptitude for throwing. And throwing alone would not earn her a passing mark. While waiting for Aria, Liselle and Zuria continued to practice, though Liselle’s success rate began to rapidly decline along with her confidence as time went on and Aria’s imminent arrival loomed. Zuria eventually instructed her to take a break until her mother joined them, preventing Liselle from completely burning herself out too early. The girl sat down on a nearby exterior power unit, drew circles on its dusty surface, and pouted.

When Aria emerged into the lot after having removed herself from the company of her mercenary guards, her gaze was immediately drawn to the dismembered dummy lying on the ground, partially ripped and tattered from clumsy abuse. She then turned to Zuria and her daughter to ask what happened to it, and Zuria simply answered that Liselle had been practicing stasis fields.

“It’s a work in progress,” she had added, but Aria’s pensive frown remained unchanged. “Originally I was teaching Liselle how to disarm someone, but... she needs some work on the fundamentals first.”

Aria gave a measured nod. “All right, Liselle,” she folded her arms and addressed the rigid girl, seeking an explanation for the setback. “Let’s see your stasis field.”

Liselle pushed herself off the power unit and demonstrated her lackluster skill on the intact dummy. Her generated field was oblong in multiple spots, and it visibly undulated with instability. 

“Remember,” Aria said as she observed, “you’re not constructing the field in the shape of the target. You’re not sculpting a shell—you’re just making a blanket. All you have to do is allow it to naturally drape over the body. Don’t overcomplicate things. Keep the field in a constant equilibrium. Pushing in and out with equal force.”

The unsightly biotic field began to draw inward, wrapping tautly around the dummy without placing stress on it. “How is this different than a barrier?” Liselle asked her.

“A barrier has to be flexible enough to allow the user to move,” answered Aria. “It’s supposed to be durable, but, it’s the difference between a pulling on a bulletproof vest and casting yourself in an ingot.”

Liselle received and implemented the advice well. When her stasis field had glazed the dummy in an immaculate, even sheen of glittering blue, Aria instructed Zuria to test it. The matron stepped forward at her command and prodded at the field before issuing a verdict, “It’s a little on the spongy side. But at least it’s stable now.”

At Liselle’s responsiveness to her teaching, Aria regarded the mentor with revitalized superiority. “Have her learn to disarm now, as was scheduled for today.”

“Of course,” said Zuria.

She and Liselle took opposing stances and began. The moment the gun was raised, Liselle threw a hand upward and captured much of Zuria’s torso within a stasis field. Her chest, her shoulders and neck, and importantly, her arm—all the way to the muzzle of the gun, were frozen with inaction. Liselle dashed at her, scrambling to tear away the firearm while keeping the field intact, but in her lack of thoroughness Zuria ripped free with a pulse of counter biotic energy and evaded Liselle, who stumbled by ungracefully. They made to try again.

“Hold on,” Aria halted her before she and Liselle took opposing stances. She addressed Zuria. “We’ll demonstrate. You and I. Liselle, stand aside, watch closely, and listen to what I tell you.”

Zuria seemed hesitant to allow Aria to step into Liselle’s prior role. She stalled a while, only proceeding when Aria gave an expectant raise of her brow. The gun was raised, and what seemed to transpire over but a half-second was a sudden rush of motion where the gun was ripped away from Zuria's grasp and a glove of biotics wrapped around her entirety, facilitating Aria’s inexorable approach. She was helpless to stop her boss from seizing her arm, pinning it behind her back, and holding onto her wrist as leverage while pushing her down in submission.

“You have to be quick. Quicker than the first shot,” Aria said to Liselle. She placed a boot on Zuria’s back to keep her down and incapacitated, eliciting a hiss followed by an unintelligible protest. “That’s why you have to catch them off guard. Manipulate them, lure them into complacency. Pretend you’ve lost, even. And sometimes they’re not going to want to talk. That’s why you need to act the moment they lift their arm. And you do _not_ let go.”

“All right, Aria,” Zuria grunted from beneath her brutal treatment, “I think Liselle gets the idea…”

Liselle certainly _did_ get the idea, although, more so that Aria was fairly displeased with Zuria’s teaching and had few reservations about overtly expressing her displeasure.

 


End file.
